undergraduate
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The Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies degree provides the foundation of skills, knowledge, judgment and practical experience required for subsequent professional studies in architecture. Though the Academic Plan is pre-professional, it is fully dedicated to imparting to students the culture and practice of design. Design is a synthetic activity. To do it well and serve the needs of the individual and society requires an extremely broad education. Students acquire an understanding of the workings of society and culture, of the principles of physics, of materials and techniques of construction, of the human interaction with the natural and built environment, of historical process, of critical thought and of the diverse forms of creative expression.
THEME AREAS
Courses in the Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies degree are arranged in four main thematic groups:
• DESIGN: The practice of design and the understanding of its theories and methods.
• CULTURE: the understanding of cultural forces in the creative world.
• TECHNOLOGY: The understanding of technological and practical aspects of design and construction.
• ENVIRONMENT: The understanding of environmental issues in natural and human ecologies.
DESIGN
Design courses are the primary focus of each term in the BAS. They are also centre of a student’s life in the School. Design is a highly synthetic activity informed directly and indirectly by the knowledge and skills developed in the other theme areas. Design courses take the form of studios in which students work individually and in groups on a series of directed projects, ranging in scale from furniture to entire urban areas, engaging practical, theoretical and aesthetic issues of architectural conception. For each project students produce high quality presentations in the form of drawings, digital images, three-dimensional models, and videos. Exercises include individual and multiple dwellings, design in rural and urban environments, development of building programs, and studies of various building types. In the final term of the BAS, students integrate theory, design and their own professional experience in a major individual project - the Comprehensive Building Design - in which they design a complex building to a high level of detail.
CULTURE
Waterloo is the only school of architecture with a Cultural History stream. Our graduates tell us that this is one of the great advantages of the curriculum as it treats architecture as a cultural practice. The courses deal with the human imagination, forms of expression, and the history of ideas. Students read and write a great deal. They are exposed to works of history, philosophy, literature and visual art. Hence all the creative activity of Waterloo students takes place against a background of broad humanistic study and cultural literacy. The fourth year in Rome makes culture and history part of real life experience.
Waterloo undergraduate students won the prestigious Berkeley Prize in essay writing in 2002 and 2007
TECHNOLOGY
The technical stream at Waterloo teaches the traditional art of construction. Based on the principles of statics, properties of materials and building science, students learn how to design and build in wood, masonry, concrete and steel, and how to integrate other building systems. Technology in architecture today also includes the emergent digital tools used in design, modeling, presentation, simulation and direct fabrication. Courses equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to find employment in professional offices during their work terms. In their most advanced forms, the new technologies challenge traditional conceptions of architecture and design and present a fertile field for research and speculation.
ENVIRONMENT
“To build is to collaborate with the earth.” Margarite Yourcenar put these words in the mouth of a Roman emperor in her great novel, The Memoirs of Hadrian. She is correct, because architecture always has a relationship with its location and can never avoid being part of a larger environmental reality. Hence the architect has the responsibility to be a steward of both the natural and built environment. This theme area provides an introduction to environmental ethics, sustainable building practice, landscape, energy-efficient building, environmental assessment systems such as LEED TM , passive solar design, acoustics, lighting, land use, settlement patterns and the changing form of cities.